


got up every morning to look for a cat

by sammyspreadyourwings



Series: Tim Staffell Appreciation Week 2021 [1]
Category: Queen (Band), Smile (Band)
Genre: Cat/Human Hybrids, Fluff, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, It's Catnip, Plans For The Future, Pre-Queen, Pre-Smile, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29575602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammyspreadyourwings/pseuds/sammyspreadyourwings
Summary: Brian can't get any work done with Tim annoying him, but he also likes having Tim nearby.
Relationships: Brian May & Tim Staffell
Series: Tim Staffell Appreciation Week 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2172798
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Tim Staffell Appreciation Weekend 2021





	got up every morning to look for a cat

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Tim appreciation week and this concept won't leave my head so I combined the two.  
> Today's Prompt: First Meetings

Hybrids, well, Hybrids aren’t exactly uncommon. Brian had met one when he was about ten and then another at sixteen.

The two meetings however were dramatically different. Especially since one had been a street performer he passed on a school trip to London and the other has currently taken over his softest blanket and is shoving it around his bed to make a perfect nest for himself.

“Tim!” He groans trying to grab the blanket back, it’s freezing in his room and he’d rather compose while warm.

“What?” Tim’s ears flick in annoyance.

“Give me back my blanket,” he says, and then gestures to the mound of blankets that are in the corner of the room that he specifically got for Tim.

“But this one is nicer,” Tim shakes his head, the tiny bell on his collar ringing. 

Brian rolls his eyes, “should’ve left you in that alley.”

He barely has time to avoid most of Tim’s weight as it is launched at him. The Hybrid pins him down, his nails flexing into Brian’s arms. Before he promptly settles down on Brian’s chest and begins running his fingers through his hair in an attempt at grooming.

“Tim! I was working,” Brian huffs again.

His work is scattered on the floor now and the pencil he was using has a broken tip now. He also has a cat-hybrid that isn’t going to leave his chest in the least.

“And now you’re not.”

“I could turn you into the shelter.”

“But you won’t,” Tim shakes his head, “because you like me too much.”

“Do I?”

Tim swats at his curls and Brian feels a tail wrap around his thigh. So he reaches up to scratch Tim’s ears in apology. He is right. Brian wouldn’t leave him in an alley or drop him off at a shelter, but he can’t deny that peace is hard to come by after adopting Tim.

Which is a weird phrase in itself. Hybrids, by law, are considered to be mostly-animals, and they have some rights but not all rights afforded to humans. It isn’t like they’re all feral or only have animal intelligence. Adopted makes Tim sounds too much like an animal.

“Ow!”

Tim pulls his hand back and raises his brow, “you had your thinky face on, it was interrupting our banter.”

“Right, well, do I like you too much to give you up?” Brian tries again, pitching his tone to be as dry as possible.

“At the very least you would have to find a new bass player,” Tim yawns, “and who else is going to listen to your astronomy lectures.”

“They aren’t lectures, they’re discussions of interesting phenomena.” 

He pushes Tim off of him when he realizes the cat was mocking him. Tim falls to the bed with a soft ‘oof’ but his tail still curled around Brian’s thigh and a shit-eating grin on his face. Brian tries to ignore him as he reaches over to gather his composing materials.

“I got the blanket,” Tim laughs.

Brian sighs and tosses the broken pencil at his head. Tim swats at it until it falls off on the other side.

“I wouldn’t,” Brian hums.

“Wouldn’t what?”

Brian scratches the back of his head, “I wouldn’t take you back to the shelter or put you on the streets again. Hell, I wouldn’t stop you if you ran out the front door never to return.”

“I know.”

He feels Tim grab his hand and squeeze.

“You’ve done so much for me since you found me, even if you ended up getting bit by that dog to save me. _And_ I know you’re saving up for a hybrid-friendly flat when we go to London for your university and that you’re going to help me find a job that I can do so I can have my own spending money.”

Brian looks away from the intense gaze, “the dog bite wasn’t that bad.”

“It was and it really needed stitches, but you didn’t want the dog to be caught and put down.”

He reaches for the scar on his arm to cover it up with his hand. It really hadn’t been that big of a deal and he knows that particular stray was only attacking him because he was interrupting his fight with Tim.

“As far as humans go, you’re good,” Tim says, “and I know you’d let me walk out that door, and at the moment I don’t want to. I want to be in this band with you and show the world that hybrids can play music and do great things.”

“You will,” Brian agrees, wrapping his hand around the edge of the blanket, “right after you give me this back.”

Tim flops against the bed, letting out a grunt of displeasure as the blanket is ripped from underneath him. Brian curls it around his shoulders and settles back against the pillows smiling smugly at Tim.

“I take it back. You’re horrible, I want a new owner.”

Brian strokes his tail, feeling the soft fur smooth out underneath his fingers. Tim starts purring and curls up against his hip, resting his head on Brian’s thigh.

“I know, I’m so cruel to you,” Brian hums.

“Very. You don’t give me any catnip.”

“I give you enough,” Brian replies, “you’re just spoiled.”

“There’s only one person to blame for that,” Tim says.

Brian uses his hand to start carding his fingers through Tim’s hair softly. It is true that when he first brought Tim home, after much bargaining with his parents, he let the cat-hybrid get away with murder. He wants to say it was because he didn’t want the hybrid to hate living with him but has he previously thought hybrids are more humans than they are animals and he could have just talked it out. But he does have a soft spot for animals.

“Think there are other people like you in London?” Tim asks suddenly.

“Like me?”

“Yeah, kind and uncaring about what a person is as long as they don’t do any wrong to you.”

“Probably. It’s not exactly an uncommon trait.”

“It is. We formed this band because I learned how to play bass and I want it to go somewhere and so do you, but you could care less what I am.”

“Talent is talent,” Brian says, “although I might put my foot down if it was an orangutan that wants to join. Communication might be hard.”

“That’s true,” Tim nods, “maybe you’ll find that pretty blond you want as a mate.”

Brian pushes at him again, “dating is the last thing on my mind.”

Tim rolls his eyes, “always has been. Can’t talk to a potential romantic interest to save your life.”

“It's not a priority!”

“I don’t want you dying alone, mostly because you won’t remember to feed yourself if left alone,” Tim crawls back onto his lap.

“I would remember eventually.”

Tim flicks his tail in a way that lets Brian know that he doesn’t exactly believe him. Brat.

“Either way, London is dependant on how well I do on these exams which I can’t study for with you laying across me like this.”

Tim rolls onto his back, “you weren’t studying you were composing.”

Brian hums at being caught and pushes at Tim’s stomach. As expected the cat hybrid wraps his hands around Brian’s wrist and flicks his feet out to simulate rabbit kicks. Tim’s shirt raises up and he can see three long scars. He sometimes wonders what would have happened if he hadn’t heard the yowling in the alley, but then decides that he doesn’t like to think about that outcome.

“Don’t bite!” Brian scolds.

Tim licks his hand in apology, but it's insincere.

“If I give you catnip will you please let me have an hour to myself?” He asks softly.

Tim rolls onto his feet in an impressive display of agility. His tail flicking out and almost hitting Brian in the face.

“Was this your master plan?” Brian says, getting up much slower.

“Yes, I know you have the patience of a saint that got excommunicated.”

“Did you find a theology textbook?”

Tim shrugs and walks around him before darting off to the cabinet where the catnip is held.

Hybrids are weird, and they’re not uncommon, but he knows that there aren’t any like Tim in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, leave your thoughts and feelings below or come talk to me on tumblr!


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